Literacy

She suggests the following- //*literacy needs to be a way we comfort// //*literacy needs to be a way we bear witness// //*literacy needs to be how we reach across the barriers that separate us The article asks readers to imagine literacy as an aesthetic experience and accept that "it's purpose is to illuminate the human condition". It is the author's goal to share ways to engage students with looking at the visual arts in order to write. "Looking to write is a different way to start writing, and unexpected things happen."// //*students' imaginations are engaged// //*boundaries of writing experiences expand// //*aesthetic experiences occur What is an aesthetic experience? An experience that is marked by interactive engagement. Ehrenworth suggests that we see this when students relate personally to characters or narratives they know from literature and believes we would see more if we engaged students more often and more purposefully with the arts. She believes that our work should bring art into the "learning lives" of students and teaching. //She provides the poetry of a 13 year old student as example. Carrie did not know the history of Picasso's relationship with the subject of the portraits and his transformation from adoration to hate and abandonment. She made line drawings, word lists and jotted down phrases. She then worked her 'looking' into poetry by arranging her noticings in two columns. There was no mini-lesson. Conferencing about punctuation and line breaks was the only teacher intervention that took place. //my hair is smooth and long// //my arms white// //and my lips red.// //How long will// //Picasso think I'm beautiful//?// **// //****[|Nude] in the Armchair Jagged bones, an insect's head You gave me a skeleton but no heart You have devoured me//.// **–Carrie-age 13 //**Storytelling about the Arts-** Try to describe the forms and colors he uses to shape Olga When you look at this painting, how do you imagine Picasso feels about Olga? //**Bather with a [|Beach Ball] //across the sand// //with the ocean behind me// //and the blue, blue sky// //your hair will blow// //and I will blow kisses// //come bounce with me// //and bring sand into the house-Nelson-age 10// The poetry of Carrie and Nelson show that when children engage with the arts, they learn to imagine experiences that are unfamiliar to them, and in that process, they expand their experiences. They access experiences they have never had, but that are now a part of their background knowledge. This, in turn, causes their powers of expression and knowledge to escalate.
 * Literacy and the Aesthetic Experience: Engaging Children with the Visual Arts in the Teaching of Writing
 * The author, Mary Ehrenworth, connects the experience of September 11, 2001 to literacy and the way we consider it.
 * literacy needs to be a way we reason//
 * //Portraiture and Poetry//****
 * One way to write through the visual arts is to introduce children to a collection of portraits. The author likes to use Picasso's portraits of women with the idea that students will write poetry around the images because both media have the ability to take us to another place. She also states that they provide many entry points for writing that begin with 'looking' and do not require a certain level of literacy in order for children to be successful as writers.//
 * [|Olga] in the Arm chair
 * //On the canvas////
 * When did I become a monster?
 * Poetry, the Arts, and Inquiry-**The arts and poetry should be incorporated as part of a curriculum of inquiry. More than any other genre, poetry attempts to express the most through the least. The author feels the experience of writing of poetry by engaging students with portraiture can be particularly transformative for elementary and middle school writers.//
 * //From Recording Observations to Craft Study-//**This exercise practices looking closely and interpreting observations.The teacher needs to model what it means to look closely at art, especially at the elementary level. Ways to record can also be demonstrated and an observation record sheet for organization of ideas may be introduced. Two paintings are selected to compare. The group observes them one at a time, discussing form and craft. Answering the following questions about each-**Bather with a Beach Ball & Seated [|Bather]
 * //How does Picasso show Olga in this painting-write down words or phrases you think of as you look at her.
 * From Painting to Poetry-**Encouraging students to look closely helps them imagine the choices the artist makes which are similar to a writer. We also encourage them to articulate in writing the experiences they imagine in the painting. As they look, they jot down simple phrases and questions. It is from these phrases that their poems emerge. Students begin with the language they recorded. Their purpose is to select, arrange and craft phrases. Some will describe what they see, while others may write about how the painting makes them feel. The poetry can also evoke the mood of the painting as in 10 year old Nelson's poem, inspired by//
 * I want to bounce on the beach like a ball//
 * I want to bounce on the beach like a ball//
 * The Social Aesthetic Experience-**When we interrupt our work periodically to share our writing, an unexpected result of this sharing is that students start to incorporate elements of each other's writing in their stories. Writing can also give the teacher opportunities to make discoveries about students.
 * Reflection on 9/11-**The author states that before 9/11 she did not realize that having a literate relationship with the arts helps us come together in humane ways. She believes that art is a means of engaging with the world, and literacy is a means of expressing this engagement so that we are less alone. As she recalls specific details of the event and the time that followed, she writes of using another Picasso painting, [|Guernica], with students to relate their experiences.

//Writing Prompt- July 27, 2006// American Landscape Painting and Invented Journal Entries In engaging students with the arts, we learn of their natural empathetic powers. As part of an interdisciplinary study on Western Expansion, fifth-graders could find ways to express their own experiences and their ways of looking at the world. American landscape paintings are shared and students, literally, imagine their own historic environment. The [|Oxbow]
 * Interactive Storytelling-**A focus lesson may be given on historical journals including a description of the setting, who is writing, and what is happening. The teacher demonstrates how a story can move around the painting. She points out to the reader that she designs characters in the story that are close to the students' ages. The story involves the landscape.

//'This morning Willie and I got caught on the other side of the river, and we thought we were never going to make it back to the farm. We were playing in the bottom of the boat that Farmer Wilson ties up by the shore. We were playing that we were on our way to New York City, where Aunt Ida says the people all live in sin and filth. Out of nowhere, the sky got all black and the wind whipped up, and the boat just washed out into the water and across the river...'//
 * //Prompt//
 * Create a journal entry from this scene. You may be anywhere in the painting. Your character may move around the landscape in your entry or choose a specific place. You may be alone or you may come upon your classmates or others. You may choose to write about how the painting makes your feel